There was a time, in the run-up to the election, when a little bit of liberal paranoia over Trump's willingness to execute some elaborate coup by masterfully playing multiple government bureaucracies against one another was, if not totally rational, healthy and understandable.

Then he lost. Hard.

At that point, the fever should've broke. We all should've come to our senses and remembered that, oh yeah, Trump's a fucking idiot that has no idea how to actually engineer a government takeover. The media is clearly sick of him and could not possibly be more ready to cast him aside. He's just going to be a sad, washed-up, bitter old loser ranting and whining on the Internet.

The idea that he'll be a relevant threat in 2024 is absurd. Nobody's keeping his seat warm. He'll be older than Sleepy Joe by then, and let's face it, he's in a Hell of a lot worse shape.

Four years is more than enough time for some younger, more ambitious, probably much more terrifyingly competent right-wing anti-intellectual populist that DOESN'T have a legacy of failure behind him to rise instead.

That should scare us a lot more.